PROFESSIONAL SALESMANSHIP

Chapter 1: An Overview
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
After the completion of the chapter, students would be able to:
1. Appraise the evolution of professional selling.
2. Justify the importance of professional selling,
3. Characterize different professional selling jobs,
4. Demonstrate the different professional Selling approaches,
5. Embody skills required from salespeople in digital age
Selling……….
is EVERYWHERE

Nature of Professional Selling

 As a form of direct marketing, SELLING is the original and oldest
one.
 It is a very effective way of communicating with the customers
especially in more complex selling situations.

Salespeople act on behalf of their companies by doing the

following:
 Creating Values for the Customers- they create value by
understanding the needs of their customers and then create
solutions to meet the need.
 Managing Relationships with the Customers- “create customers
for life”
 Convey Customer and Market Information back to their
companies- they are acting in behalf of the company and also
perform representations of the customers.
 Gathering Market information-they become able to gather
enormous deal of helpful information about the needs.
Professional Selling Evolution
 (1752-1870) Insurance Begins Role Specialization with Hunters &
Farmers
 (1924) IBM Professional Selling
 (1925-1936) The psychology of selling and Dale Carnegie’s
Tactical Selling
 (1988) Spin Selling and Solution Selling
 (2011) Predictable Revenue
 (2015) The SaaS Sales Stack and Sales Hackers
(1752-1870) Insurance Begins Role Specialization with Hunters &
Farmers
Professional Selling really started in 1752 when Benjamin
Franklin created the Americas oldest insurance company.
Hence the insurance industry developed field specialization from
Account Executive Hunter and Account Manager Farmer in 1870.
Role specialization and process improvements become the first
vital improvements in the history of selling
(1924) IBM Professional Selling
Chinese immigrants arrived in America to lend hand constructing
the intercontinental railroad. They brought a game changing
product called snake oil, a fake liniment with no snake extract.
This made the selling profession a negative public perception.
Thomas J. Watson Sr professionalized the Selling profession with
his newly named company IBM International Business Machines
(1925-1936) The psychology of selling and Dale Carnegie’s Tactical
Selling
Edward Kellogg Strong in July 1925 published a book entitled
“The Psychology of Selling”
Dale Carnegie become famous with AIDCA (Attention, Interest,
Desire, Conviction, and Action)
Both Strong and Carnegie made great advancements in sales
profession through:
1. Generalizing those sales was a recurring process
 2. Confirming that the sales were skill set could be learned,
studied and mastered
3. Making research as a tool in concretizing and
communicating unclear sales concepts
4. Creating tactics and relationship selling playbook
(1988) Spin Selling and Solution Selling
Neil Rackham wrote the book entailed SPIN Selling (Situation
questions, Problem questions, Implication questions, Need Pay-off
questions)
Solution Selling established an advanced sales model that
functioned well for selling complex products and services.
(2011) Predictable Revenue
Aaron Ross authored the book “Predictable Revenue which
teaches the company how having a repeatable process can drive
sales growth faster and more predictable
(2015) The SaaS Sales Stack and Sales Hackers
people specialized cloud sales apps for each of their workflow
processes such as lead generation.
Those that have learned and mastered the new sales techniques and
the best practices become the top performers or “Sales Hackers”
IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL SELLING
To the Society
 Converts latest demand – newest demand to effective demand
 Employment opportunities- help unemployed to work as
salespersons
 Career opportunities- guarantees attractive career, job satisfaction,
respect, variety, security, and lot more.
 The mobility of sales people- transfer from one place to another
 Product standardization-consistency of consumption of selling
homogeneous products.
To the Company
 Useful promotional tool
 Flexible tool
 Lessen wastage of efforts
 Consumer attention
 Lasting relationship
 A personal relationship
 Function in introductory stage
 Connection with the customers
To the Customers
 Assisting identifying needs
 Most recent market information
 Professional advice
 Encourage customers
TYPES OF SELLING APPROACHES
 The Instant Buddy  Customer Personality Seller
 The Guru  Analytical
 The Consultant  Amiable
 The Networker  Expressive
 The Hard Seller  Driver
 Solution Seller

TYPES OF PROFESIONAL SELLING JOBS

 Missionary salespeople
 Trade salespeople
 Prospectors
 Account Managers
 Other types of sales position
 Order Taker
 Sales Support
QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS
PROFESSIONAL SELLER
 Product Knowledge
 Strategic Prospecting Skills
 Rapport Building on the call
 Buyer Seller Agreement
 Active Listening
 Communication Skills
 Qualification Questioning
REQUIRED OF A
 Time management
 Objection Prevention
 Objection Handling
 Demo Skills
 Gaining Commitment
 Closing techniques
 Post sales relationship
management

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED OF A

PROFESSIONAL SELLER
SKILLS REQUIRED FROM A SALESPEOPLE IN THE DIGITAL
AGE
 Digital Research
 Content Curation
 Content Creation
 Social Platform know how
 Analytical Expertise
 Trust Building
 Problem Solving
 PROFESSIONAL SALESMANSHIP
Chapter 2: Trust and Sales Ethics
“Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no
desire, no trust.”-Zig Ziglar

Trust and Mutual Respect for the Customers

 Trust is a solid and strong belief in the reliability, truth, ability and
strength of someone or something.
 Trust makes the offer of product or service by the sales people with
real value identified through the eyes of the customer.
How to Build Customer Trust: Nine Rules by Geoffrey James
 Be oneself  Keep an open mind
 Value the relationship  Have a real dialogue
 Be curious about people  Be a professional
 Be consistent  Demonstrate real integrity
 Seek the truth
IMPORTANCE OF TRUST IN SALES
Trust in Service
The findings about selling competencies for professional service
companies reveal the following three essential elements of trust in the eyes
of perspective customers:
 Candor- deal with customer with honestly.
 Competence- provider knows precisely what he is doing
 Concern- The most significant ingredient of trust.
EARNING TRUST IN SALES
There are six core drivers that direct to building strong trust-based
relationships, namely:
 Self- trust  Ethics
 Dependability  Customer-centric
 Competence  Likeability
KNOWLEDGE BASES HELP BUILD TRUST AND
RELATIONSHIP
There a six aspects that are vital to building trust and relationships through
knowledge base which are:
 Knowledge of the Customers
 Knowledge of the Industry
 Knowledge of the Product
 Knowledge of the Customer’s Company
 Knowledge of Promotion and Price
 Knowledge of Technology
ETHICAL ISSUES IN SALES
Common Ethical Problems Faced in Dealing with Salespeople
 Levels of Sales Pressure
 Decisions affecting territory
 To tell the truth
 The Ill sales person
 Employees right
1. Conditions which the company is able to five salespeople
without violating any law
2. Rights do and should sales people have concerning the
privacy of their employment records and access to them
3. What companies can do to avoid sexual and racial
harassment and other forms of prejudice in the workplace.
Common Ethical Problems Faced in Dealing with Employers
 Misuse company Assets  Misrepresentation
 Moonlight  Price Discrimination
 Cheat  Tie-in Sales
 Affect other salespeople  Exclusive Dealership
 Attempt technology theft  Reciprocity
 Bribes
MANAGING SALES ETHICS
Here are some ways in managing sales ethics in the company:
 Sales ethics cannot be implied sales process.
 Develop a detailed presentation sheet to be used for product
demonstrations and have prospects sign-off on what the
demonstration covered.
 Management must use trickle down ethical approach and reveal the
standards they suppose their sales people stick-on
 When hiring salespeople, make them affix their signature in the
business clause on ethics in their job descriptions
 There must be proper communication to your salespeople on the
monthly basis on what is expected of them with regards to selling
what they have not what they desire to sell.
 Do not at all times suppose that a salesperson is unethical just
because a customer complains.
Chapter 3: COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN SELLING
“The most important thing in COMMUNICATION, is hearing what isn't
said.” -Peter Drucker
The Trust Process in Sales Conversation
The development of trust can be described in five-stage process that is the
heart of trust based selling. The potholes of selling take place from
violating the five-step sequential process of trust creation.

Trust Development Process

1. Engage the client in an open conversation about issues that are
key to the client;
2. Listen to what is vital and genuine to the client and gain the
right to offer solutions;
3. Frame the true core issue, not including the language of blame,
via caveats, problem statements and hypotheses; take personal risks
to explore sensitive issues—articulate a point of view; create by
giving away;
4. Envision an alternate reality, including win-win specific
descriptions of outcomes and results, including emotional and
political states; clarify benefits—make clear what’s at stake; be
tangible about future states;
5. Commit to feasible and actionable next steps that imply significant
commitment and movement on the part of each party.
Ten Trust Process Potholes

Spotting the Ten Potholes

Sales Conversation Pendulum

The Formal Process in Sales Conversations
Six Stages in Sales Conversation Process
1. Set the Agenda
2. Collect the Assumption
3. Discover the Truth
4. Nods of Understanding (Paraphrase)
5. Discuss Solutions
6. Actions and Next Steps
Six Stages in Sales Conversation Process
1. Set the Agenda- This is the initial meeting which is all about
framing the process for success and setting both the agenda and the
tone. The right agenda is basically about the following:
 Solving the problem together
 Exploring the possibilities
 Discovering the reason/ for the unsolved problem
 Discussion of the current situation, exploring some
challenges and outlining a new direction
2. Collecting Assumptions This second step involves eliciting
assumptions coming from the potential customer using
questioning. Here are some examples of questions for the sales
conversation:
 What is taking place in your business right now?
 What are the challenges in the way?
 Why are working on specific project?
 What happen if I don’t do this?
 What happen if you move this forward and it does not work?
 Who are the important people in the process and what would
they say?
 What are the potential risk?
3. Discover the Truth After having gathered all the information, the
next thing is determining the facts behind the assumptions and
getting rid of the pointless information. The role of the salesperson
 conversation is to explore deeper into the assumptions by clarifying
what has been said:
 Is the assumption indeed true?
 Is this really the most important point consider?
 How do we know that this is true?
 Do we need any proof to support this?
 Is there anyone we need to speak to that has more data we
should explore?
4. Nod of Understanding (Paraphrase) Good salespeople are well
versed at questioning, listening, and paraphrasing. Making use of
the stories in selling is one of the best skills of winning salespeople.
Great stories have basically four common phases, namely:
 The Situation- prospect connects with salesperson and
environment of the story
 The Complication(s)- prospective customer hero being faced
is discussed
 The Turning Point- the moment of sudden realization,
inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension of
something
 The Resolution- what the future holds, a new way forward
and vision of success is discovered here.
5. Discuss Solutions the salesperson can already demonstrate his
insights, provide information about his company, products, services,
and pricing
6. Actions and Next Steps Almost certainty, this is the most critical of
all the steps. There are actually a number of interpretations here such as:
 Is the salesperson asking for assurance to a next step?
 Is the salesperson asking the prospective customer to take
action without driving him very far out of his comfort zone?
 Is the salesperson setting many commitment objectives to
allow the prospective customer to move the process further
in different ways?
 Is the salesperson simply allowing the prospective customer
to tell him “Let me go home and think about it?” And then
later flood the customer with worthless follow up.
VERBAL COMMUNICATION: QUESTIONING
QUESTIONING is a critical input to gather more information. It is basic
requirement for successful communication particularly interpersonal.
Everyone ask questions, especially when engaged in conversation.
Here are several types of questions that can help salespeople in sales
process, which are:
1. Assessment Questions- draw out realistic information about the
customer’s present situation
2. Discovery Questions- brings light to explore for more details
required for clarification
3. Activation Questions- assist the customer to reasonably assess the
complete force of implied need
4. Projection Questions- follow ups of the activation questions.
5. Transition Questions- the shift from needs detection and activation
into the presentation and demonstration of the anticipated solution
features, advantages, and benefits is smoothened by a transition
question.
Conversational Skills
Effective Salespeople try their best to produce a connection with their
customer. Here are some conversational skill:
• Asking non confronting questions to demonstrate real care
about customer needs
• Talking expertly about a product or service
• Showing concern and kindness
• Preventing bias or stereotyping
• Bending to customers verbal style
• Informing the reality
• Giving observation that prove to understand
• Agreeing to and recognizing customers viewpoints
• Abstaining from disrupting or correcting unreasonably
• Observing for and reacting to clues of uneasiness or dullness
• Being tactful
• Making small talk when it is necessary and to fitting degree
Vocal Skills
Excellent communicators know that what they say is often less significant
than the manner they articulate it. Their voices must create an impact by:
 Regulating their pitch to go with the conversation
 Regulating their volume to guarantee clarity, and suit customer’s
comfort and hearing needs
 Speaking in a stable tone of voice to demonstrate calm and self-
reliance
 Dawdling the speed of speech so it is calm and understandable
 Changing the intonation in voice to go well with the message to
prove enthusiasm common sense interest and gravity
 Speaking words plainly
 Changing the quality and intensity of voice to seize the interest
 Expressing meaning using the sound of the voice to strengthen the
message.
Listening
• Is the most sophisticated form of communication.
• Both complex process and learned skills.
• Requires a conscious intellectual and emotional effort
• Needs the use of all senses
• Engaging in a conversation that needs to be active rather
than passive

Three Levels of Listening

1. The Non Listener – does not hear the other individual at all. Seldom
makes an effort to hear what others are saying.
2. Marginal Listener- the person is hearing words but not really
listening
3. Evaluative Listener – needs a lot of attentiveness and awareness as
the listener is keenly attempting to listen to what the other person is
saying
4. Active Listener- the utmost and most effective level of listening. It
requires substance and for emotions in the message. To be a good active
listener one should:
 • Listen with objective to understand
• Center entirely on listening
• Asks questions
• Summarize
NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Space considerations are important for salespeople to reflect on. Violations
of territorial space without consent may generate the customers defense
mechanism to produce an obstacle to effective communications, and
consequently the sale.
There are four main types of distances to consider, which are:
1. Intimate (up to 18 inches)– this is considered reserved for lovers,
children, close family members, friends, and pets.
2. Personal (18 inches to 4 feet) This space is used in conversation with
friends, to chat with associates, and in group discussion.
3. Social (4 feet to 8 feet)– normally used in sales pitch.
4. Public (greater than 8ft)- essentially that range reserved for larger
audiences
Appearance
• Also a factor of non-verbal communication.
• Communicates information on age, sex, height, weight, physical
characteristics and personality
Handshake is a more intense and indicative of greater fondness and warmer
feelings.
The general rules for a successful handshake namely:
 Extend the hands first, though intentional etiquette may need to be
followed in some situations.
 Sustain eye contact during the complete time-span of the handshake
 Grip the other hand tightly
Body Movements in sales it is vitally important to read body language
Body Movements three types of message:
 Acceptance Signals- customers are favorably inclined towards
salespeople and his presentation.
 Caution Signals- alerts salespeople that customers are skeptical or
neutral towards sellers
 Disagreements Signals- tense, wrinkled face and brow with little
eye contact indicated disagreements in sales.